I always use $500 Audioquest RCA cables on my topping D10.
But only because I have them lying around and I find it funny.
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I have a $400 power supply powering my E30. It’s how it goes.
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really cute device the ultrarendu…
I was surprised by how snappy loading tracks in Roon was. Feels quicker than the Antipodes (that was already so much faster than the Auralic).
I’ve set up bookmarks in chrome to switch between the apps I will use frequently. Could’ve been nice if it didn’t need to open a tab but this will do for now.
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Anyone tried the ultradigital DDC ?
discovered something today, since I use Roon, I turned off the UPnP bridge app that had been running in the background, not connecting to anything obviously. Noticeable improvement in performance. 
Just bs’ing with you, no improvement but it is doing one less thing so less processing which can’t be a bad thing.
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Can’t hurt, but it’s probably not using any CPU worth talking about unless you play something on it, it’s just sitting sleeping waiting on the OS to wake it up if data is ready.
I think with UPNP it might have to broadcast the fact it exists every 3 or 4 seconds, so you might get some CPU time back.
Yeah, it’s what I figured but audiophilia optimism knows no bounds! lol
I’ve been so impressed with this little unit, really does punch above its weight and seems to scale very well with improved power.
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It really is a really good USB source.
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I asked Sonore about the difference between the older ultradigital with external PSU to the newer one that is driven by the USB input for power:
“The ultra digital is more or less the same except now, powered by a single USB input, which would preferably be from something like a cleanly powered ultraRendu.”
A little counter-intuitive to me how it would be similar sound quality or better than splitting the load but I guess having less components inside also helps. If you consider used pricing for the older version (around $300) and adding a good PSU to it, you get to the cost of the new one ($500). That is if you can’t find a used sale of the newer version…
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Optical Rendu is similar with the addition of the Fiber interface and logic.
Like all the other streamers, it’s an Arm Chip with some RAM, and a USB controller.
Very clean design, it’s hard to determine what some of the smaller chips are, I would guess the two near the Ethernet and USB ports are actually opto isolators.
Separate regulated supplies for the 3.3 and 5V portions of the board using linear regulators instead of switching ones.
Looks like the CPU board is a NXP Arm Chip i.MX6, board is made by SolidRun, the little chip to the left is the ethernet controller, the missing chips at the bottom are optional Wifi and Bluetooth chips.
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Actually much more changes than I thought and it looks like the optical may be a step up. Here’s mine when I opened it up, dual clocks just for starters, whatever that additional “microchip” does as well as an improved input power section. There’s also a cap on the USB out, so perhaps smoothing power ouput power further?
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Other than telling you it looks like a much more complex board I really have no understanding of what’s going on there or how it’ll impact sound quality lol but I’ll try to get my hands on one to try and compare!
2 clocks is interesting, I assume though the second one is for the Gigabit switch in there, rather than being audio related. Being USB out, it doesn’t have an audio clock.
I think it’s all just to deal with the SFP connector.
The big chip is an 8 port gigabit switch, most likely to allow the SFP. Ethernet connection to interface with the one on the daughter board, the other one is an Ethernet isolation transfromer, again probably to isolate one interface from the other.
A lot of linear regulators on both boards.
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Any thoughts on sound quality difference then?
No idea.
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Ha! I feel the same.
Honestly I doubt there would be much meaningful difference, some but IMO the big advantage as I told you before is just less boxes having the SFP integrated as opposed to external. Less visual clutter to mess with the ocd.
That makes a lot of sense.
That’s important!
I hate how everything looks there now… router, FMC, switch, LPSU for them, NUC ROCK and now the ultra with its PSU and perhaps soon another DDC. Impossible to set up clean.
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How bad does it look now? I’ve come to realize there are some pieces of gear that are impossible to keep neat and organized, such as the Pi2AES box. It gets pulled by the USB, AES, Coax, and Ethernet and kind of hangs. One day I should velcro it down…
Also, what are you all looking at with the inside pics? I’ve been trying to follow along and a bit lost on the context.
This. I’m living with my UltraRendu on my desk right now, but I had to tape the little Douk U2 Pro to the bottom of my desk to get it out of sight. I’m kind of dreading what it’s going to look like when I get the OptiRendu and fmc in.